


Blink and you may miss your chance

by MelindaCoulson4



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Flirting, babyphilinda, fluffy fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-24 20:50:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9786278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelindaCoulson4/pseuds/MelindaCoulson4
Summary: Everything changes. This is how Melinda May gradually slips away from Phil Coulson. Each flashback is going to be relative to the “some time ago” mission in 4x14.





	1. Hotel room- 2 months, 3 days after

_Hotel room- 2 months, 3 days after_

 

They’re on a mission in Prague. There weren’t any SHIELD safehouses available in the area, so they’re staying in a hotel. And they just happen to be staying in a room together. Melinda thought it was hilarious when they found out that SHIELD only booked one room for the both of them. 

This mission was important. He didn’t need any distractions. And Melinda May was a big distraction. 

Especially a Melinda May in the shower, which is where she is right now. 

Her phone won’t stop ringing. He’s been trying to go through the mission details in the files spread out in front of him, but the ring of her cell phone keeps interrupting his thoughts. 

He looks up at the sound of the bathroom door swinging open. His eyes widen, almost popping out of his head at the sight of her. She has nothing but a white fluffy towel covering her body. Her shoulders and neck still have droplets of water resting on her skin. Her hair is still damp and the towel is really _damn_ short. This is exactly the type of distraction that he was thinking about. 

The woman has no shame. 

“What? If it bothers you, turn around,” she says simply. 

He shakes his head at her. She’s unbelievable. 

Her cell phone starts ringing again with that awful, blaring ringtone. 

Not again. He groans. “Your phone keeps ringing. Could you _please_ answer it for once?” He teases. 

“They can wait,” she answers and begins pulling the towel off. 

He turns his head away quickly, giving her privacy. Of course he wants to look. She’s so beautiful, but he loves her and respects her. There will come a time when he will have his chance. However, he knows that today is not that day.

He focuses back on the file in front of him, trying not to think of the naked Melinda May less than 10 feet away. 

After a few minutes, he hears the springs of the bed squeaking behind him. He turns around to see May sitting cross-legged with her phone held up to her ear. He waits for her to lower the phone before inquiring about the caller.

“So….who was it? Random civilian number 14?” He asks. 

That comment earns him a small smile. Yet, it fades quickly as her eyes lower to the ground. 

 _Oh. OH!!!_ This is a rare sight. She’s embarrassed. “Are you….blushing?”

“No!” She objects quickly. 

“I think you are.” He smirks, proud of himself. 

“It was….the shrink. His name is Andrew,” she tells him hesitantly. 

“Ohhh upgrade. He’s not _the shrink_ anymore. He’s _Andrew_.” He teases. “So…the date went well?” He tries asking nonchalantly, wanting to know more. 

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?” He didn’t expect her to say that. He was hoping for a non-committal grunt or a complaint about how awful the date was.

“He’s just…..He’s not SHIELD. He’s something different,” she answers, almost mumbling. 

Her gaze is still focused on the floor, never meeting his. 

“Well….like I said. Let me know when it doesn’t work out. I’ve already got our reservation.” He isn’t concerned about this guy. 

Her eyes dart to his. She shoots him a grin while shaking her head at him. There’s the Melinda that he knows. 

He loves flirting with her. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get tired of it. 

 

_He can’t wait for her to be done with this guy. He gives it a week before she calls him up, asking for that drink._

 

//end//


	2. The Brick-  2 months, 15 days after

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some philinda sparring action. Reminder: Each flashback is relative to the “some time ago” mission in 4x14.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some colorful language in this.

_Shield training facility, The Brick-  2 months, 15 days after_

They’re at The Brick, sparring with each other. They’ve been called in for a week of mandatory training and testing. All agents have to be retested every once and a while. It was their turn now. It was a pain in the ass and repetitive, but being able to spend some down time with May has been fun. Most of their time is spent in weight training, cardio training, and weapons training. But when they do get some down time, they spend it together. They eat meals and watch movies together. 

Tomorrow they have their combat efficiency re-testing, so they decided to get a little more practice in before the day is over. What better person to practice with than Melinda May?

They’ve been going at it for 20 minutes now with no sign of stopping. 

May had just thrown a kick to his hip that he was able to dodge easily. Maybe she was starting to lose her steam. No trouble, he knew exactly how to rile her up. 

“That was weak,” he comments. 

“Excuse me???” Her hands drop from their fighting position in front of her face to the sides of her body. She’s clearly offended and shocked that he would have the guts to say that to her. 

Her fake-outrage makes him chuckle. “You heard me!" 

For a moment, he thinks she might tackle him to the ground, yet she just continues to glare at him like a caged tiger. 

Without warning, her fist darts out like a bolt of lightning. She strikes him right in the stomach. He can’t control the pitiful and kind of comical _oof!_ that comes out of his mouth. She knocked the wind right out of him. He bends over, trying to catch his breath. _Damn that hurt. That one was definitely going to leave a mark._

When he’s finally able to pull himself together, he sees her standing unamused with both hands on her hips.

"Oh I’m sorry did I hit a soft spot there? It seems like you need to work on your abdominals, Agent Coulson. Slacking much?”

“My abs are just fine,” he defends. 

She begins circling him, like a shark stalking its prey. “Hmm I don’t know. I’d like to see evidence. Maybe you should take your shirt off,” she suggests. 

“Maybe you should take yours off.” _Shit. Why did he say that?_ He just can’t keep up with her. She’s too witty. He blabbed the first thing that came to mind. Good one, he thinks. A topless Melinda May. That’s the last thing he needs.

“Fine.” She stops in her tracks, steps back, and strips her shirt off with no problem. 

His mind short circuits at her movements. 

She balls the shirt up and tosses it somewhere to the side of them. He doesn’t know where and doesn’t care. All he knows is that it’s off of her body and she’s standing in front of him in a small sport’s bra. It’s black and tight _. So tight_. He has a clear view of her chest, shoulders, and abs. She’s definitely trying to kill him.

“Come on Phil. Your turn,” she challenges him. She’s smirking so hard. 

He doesn’t think he’s ever seen her so excited. 

“Or are you afraid?” She fake-coughs, trying to cover up her whispered, “scared-y cat.”

Well, she did it, so he’s going to too. He pulls his shirt over his head before he has the chance to think it through. He holds his hands out, putting himself on display for her. 

She didn’t think that he would actually do it. Her face is the perfect picture of total shock. Her mouth had actually dropped open. Now, her eyes run over his body unashamedly. She’s so overt about it that he can actually see the slow movement of her eyes start at his face and end at his waist. It was almost as if she was admiring him, but he couldn’t be sure. 

He can’t take much more of the way that she’s staring at him, so he reminds her of their goal here.  "Let’s go. Or are you afraid of getting close to something so good looking?“ He throws his shirt away from them. 

"Ha!” She exaggerates her fake laugh. Then she moves towards him to attack.

She kicks at his ribs, but he blocks her by elbowing her thigh. 

In response, she spins around and lands a jab on his shoulder. 

He tries swiping at her feet in order to knock her down but she easily jumps out of the way. 

Back and forth they go for more than 20 minutes. 

Punch. Kick. Deflect. 

Kick. Deflect. Punch. 

They’re both getting winded now. Sweat rolls down his face, so he takes a second to swipe at it with his arm. That’s all the distraction that she needs to take him down. 

She kicks the side of his knee and then pushes at his chest with both of her palms. 

He didn’t have time to steady himself. He was going down, but he manages to get the tip of his foot around her ankle causing her to topple into him. 

They both fall comically: him on his back and her right on top of him. 

He groans. She didn’t weigh much, but the feeling of being slammed onto his back with someone on top of him was never a good one. 

They both take a second to catch their breath and get over the shock of the tumble. 

“Okay…..You win,” he concedes. He can’t take anymore from her if he wants to be able to function by tomorrow morning. 

“I don’t know…it seems like we both went down. I guess we’ll just need to do it again,” she says directly into his ear. Her hot breath seems to travel right to his groin. _Oh god, please no_. He definitely would never hear the end of that. 

It’s been too long since he’s had a woman this close to him. And she was definitely no ordinary woman. 

She pulls away from his ear to get a look at his face. Her smirk is nowhere to be found. 

Somehow they have gone from light flirting to seriousness in a matter of seconds. 

He watches her closely, unsure of what to say or do. He sees her eyes flicker towards his mouth and back up again. And well, he can’t help himself when his do the same. 

His heart beats a little bit faster, which she can probably feel with her hands resting on his chest. Somehow, he doesn’t even care. All he cares about is what her lips may feel like pressed against his own.

The squeak of the gym doors opening pulls them apart immediately. He can hear talking, which quickly turns into whistling and hollering. And it’s clearly directed at them. 

May turns her head towards all of the commotion. 

 _Fuck_. He was so close. He slams his head back against the matted floor in frustration. 

“Get a room!”

“Oh yea baby!”

More whistles and laughter. 

The laughing and comments were getting louder, which meant that they were getting closer. 

“Who is that over there? Oh! Noooo way! Don’t tell me! It’s Phil and Melinda!" 

Phil internally cringes at that voice. He knows exactly who it is. It’s John fucking Garrett, the worst person who could’ve caught them. Out of all of the people at SHIELD why did it have to be him? Garrett and May did not get along, at all….to put it politely. 

May shoots him a disappointed glare, but he knows that it’s not directed at him. 

She rolls off of him.

He sits up just like May is now in order to face Garrett and his posse. They were all still a bunch of level 2’s because they couldn’t work well with others. They had the talent to move up, but were severely lacking in the personal skills department. 

"Oh don’t mind us. Did you want us to leave so that you can continue?” Garrett stares down at them with the biggest shit-eating grin that Phil has ever seen, clearly proud of himself for walking in on them. 

“Yes, actually. Get out and never come back,” May growls, moving to stand up and most likely attack. 

He grabs her wrist. “May, just leave it,” he warns. 

She hated Garrett with a passion. He always seemed to go after her, yet she always knocked him down. Whether it was teasing or a physical altercation, May always won. But Garrett never seemed to learn his lesson.

“Think you can show me a good time like you do for Coulson?”

“Hey-” he begins, but is interrupted by May. 

“Why don’t you come over here and you can find out?” She quickly stands, goading Garrett. 

“Ohhhhh!” The agents around Garrett laugh, clearly amused and maybe impressed by May’s retort. 

He forgot how much she could handle herself. She didn’t need him to protect her honor. He knew that she was more than capable, but she had also been sparring with him for the better part of an hour. She had to be exhausted and he didn’t want that to affect her performance. 

She turns towards him and whispers confidently, “he’s a dick. I’m going to knock him on his ass in five seconds.”

“Fine. Let’s go,” Garrett says, while moving closer to May. 

They go at each other like caged animals. 

May gets a good punch in right at Garrett’s chest. 

Garrett kicks her knee. 

They continue like that for a while. Garrett is good enough to keep up with May, at least for now. 

After 10 minutes of back and forth punching, kicking, and blocking. Garrett and May are both covered in sweat. Garrett is more like dripping buckets. It’s disgusting. May is somehow just glistening a tad bit. 

“Aright. You win,” Garrett says, out of the blue, while stepping away from May.

He couldn’t actually believe that Garrett would give up so easily. He had a reputation to uphold. There was just no way that this was possible. 

That’s when he sees it, that evil smirk that Garrett has. 

May’s distracted. She’s already picked up her previously discarded t-shirt and is cleaning herself up. She’s got the shirt covering her face, blotting lightly at the sweat. 

And that’s exactly when Garrett moves in. He’s already got his arm cocked back. 

There’s nothing that he can do to stop it now, so he watches pathetically from the sideline. It’s too late. She won’t be able to react in time. 

Garrett makes contact with May’s face, resulting in a sickening crunch. 

“On second thought never mind,” Garrett comments. 

Too little, too late to say that. You fucking ass hole, Coulson thinks. 

He watches in absolute horror as blood starts pouring from May’s nose. 

He jumps up in surprise, ready to…….ready to do something. He doesn’t know what he was even planning to do. Nothing. She didn’t need saving. He would only embarrass her. 

That bastard doesn’t even give her a chance to collect herself. When she’s stunned and turned around he comes at her again like a coward! 

“May!” Coulson yells, trying to give her a little warning this time.   

She meets his eyes for barely even a second and he just knows exactly what she’s thinking. She’s thinking of murdering Garrett. Her face is completely made up of disgust and rage. 

Garrett’s arms wrap her body from behind, effectively trapping her in a bear hug.  

His forearms encircle her arms, squeezing them to her chest. 

“How do you like this, baby?” Garrett cackles directly in her ear. 

May doesn’t need to use words; instead, she uses her actions to show Garrett exactly how she likes it. 

Her elbow smashes into Garrett’s gut. Then, her fist flies up in an uppercut directly colliding with his chin. 

His arms loosen around her own from of the pain. She’s able to spin around and hook her arm around his neck, putting him into a chokehold. 

Her grip is so tight, that Garrett quickly goes somewhat limp in May’s arms, so she releases him and he tumbles onto the mat. 

“Fhaauuck,” Garret whines. The way he said it made him sound like a drunk. 

“How did you like that, baby?” May throws Garrett’s smart ass question right back at him as she walks away.

God he _loves_ her. Seeing Garrett on the ground like that was so satisfying. He doesn’t even know how she had the strength left to do that.  

He quickly follows May out of the practice area and into the locker area.

There are rows of lockers and metal benches in this hallway, along with a couple of mirrors and sinks. This SHIELD facility was equipped to house thousands of SHIELD agents at a time. 

May lets her gym bag back drop onto the nearest bench and immediately moves to one of the mirrors. 

“Son of a bitch,” she mumbles while inspecting her face in the mirror. 

He hasn’t been able to get a good look at her yet. 

“Let me see your face." 

She turns around to face him and he cringes at the sight. The bridge of her nose is already swollen and has an angry red tinting to it.

"At least it stopped bleeding,” he comments. 

“It’s fine,” she dismisses. 

“You’re going to have a hell of a bruise.” He reaches a hand up to move the hair from her bangs that had fallen in front of her eyes. 

Her breath seems to catch in her throat for just a second. There’s a hunger in her eyes, similar to the look she had when they were twisted together on the mats. 

As soon as he spots it, it’s gone. She blinks and her eyes are back to having their humorous glint in them. 

“Only because he hit me with a cheap shot. What a little bitch,” she mutters, still very much pissed off and rightfully so. 

“I know. You’re right. But you embarrassed the hell out of him.”

He puts his gym bag on the bench in front of them and unzips it. His hand fumbles around with the contents in the bag, searching for a little blue packet. He knows for a fact that he tossed it in there earlier. Last time he sparred with May it came in handy. 

His hand makes contact with the squishy bag. He grabs a hold of it and begins crushing it in his fist to activate it. It begins freezing up fairly quickly. 

“Here,” he says, holding out the ice pack for her to take.

She laughs lightly, “Thanks." 

He didn’t want their time to end. Having her around him was just too much fun. "Maybe….,” he hesitates. He grabs the back of his neck, feeling the tension there _. Just say it. Just say: May, let’s go out for some drinks_. He opens his mouth to say it before he can lose his courage, but is interrupted. 

Her phone rings with that absolutely awful ringtone that reminds him of the hotel room. Which means….It’s _the shrink_ that’s calling…..What was his name? 

“Umm. Sorry,” she quickly apologizes and then reaches for her phone. 

“Hey. Yea I’m just getting cleaned up. I’m all sweaty. I know. Well of course,” she says into the phone, followed by a throaty chuckle.

Usually she only laughs like that with him. Hearing it while she’s on the phone with another man, makes his heart feel like it’s deflating. It’s stupid and his own fault, but he can’t help feeling that way.

May continues to laugh loudly in response to whatever the shrink is saying to her. 

He can’t even listen to her for more than 30 seconds. He feels so awkward right now, like he’s intruding on an intimate moment. “May. I’m gonna go." 

"Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks for the ice pack,” she says quickly. 

“Sure.” He turns around and the fake smile that he had on slips right off of his face. 

 

_He feels a little bit of a loss this time._

 

//tbc//

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one holds a special place in my heart. There’s just something about imagining those two sparring that makes my heart soar. So much sexual tension. And yes, I made The Brick up. Also, I know that John Garrett is like an extreme ass hole in this, but I kind of figured that he’s hydra so maybe the whole time that he was with shield he secretly did all that he could to fuck with them. It’s probably early for him to already be in hydra, but oh well. And yes this rivalry doesn’t match with the canon relationship between Garrett and Philinda, but that will be addressed in a later chapter.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Please comment and let me know what you think!!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think!
> 
> TBC


End file.
